


We've All Heard Stories

by KlanceTrash (sstamm)



Category: Grimm (TV), Supernatural
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 07:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4129054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sstamm/pseuds/KlanceTrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Dean find a case in the town of Portland, but this town seems to have a history of supernatural occurrences and though they are blown off as normal, these detectives might be hiding something.<br/>Sam and Dean along with Hank and Nick learn a little bit about each other's trades and a lot about themselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We've All Heard Stories

**Author's Note:**

> Forewarning this takes on more of a focus of the characters personalities/characteristics and was meant more for entertainment than correspondence with the current events of the shows, so you won’t see references to things such as Dean and the mark, Rowena, neither will you see mention Adalind’s baby, Juliette being a hexenbiet/dead etc. It is simply a case story combining two of my favorite shows. Enjoy for the sake of enjoyment, and don’t fester on the incongruences please.

  


She ran panting, heart pounding down the worn path of the woods – having taken the suggested shortcut home after a night out with friends, but quickly regretting it as she sensed she was not alone on the trail (and it was clearly not just the booze from that frat boy’s party). The man she caught a glimpse of over her bouncing shoulder was catching up to her quickly having taken off running when she did.

Maybe she should just stop and face him, she found herself thinking as she stumbled over some fallen branches covering the path, but as he got closer she noticed something wasn’t quite right about him; bounding quickly in the dark through the trees the way he did seemed almost animal-like.

As she staggered out of the woods and down the grassy slope leading into town he caught her causing them both to fall to the ground. Under the shining starlight she saw his monstrous face and fangs gleaming brightly filling its snarling muzzle. She hardly had time to scream before those fangs sunk into her neck, then chest, then neck again before she succumbed to the sticky warmth that was her death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Groggily Dean made his way into the enormous hall of the Men of Letters bunker. He scratched his head as he plopped down into a chair at the table in front of the book he left open having given up on it before going to sleep in the heaven that was his memory-foam mattress.

A clank spurred forward his waking as Sam came in the door on the upper deck carrying a bag and two cups of coffee in a fast food carrier.

“Breakfast,” he announced as he tossed the food over to Dean taking a seat across the table from him and opening his laptop.

“I think I found a case” Sam said looking up at his brother who was unceremoniously stuffing his face with a large breakfast sandwich.

He turned his laptop to face Dean. The headline from an online newspaper read, “Two deaths near College Campus.” A click later and the newspaper disappeared to be replaced by a photo of a young woman lying face up in the grass her throat and chest ripped open. Of course this didn’t stop Dean from cramming the rest of the sandwich in his mouth while replying:

“Two deaths don’t make a case, Sammy.”

“I _know_ , Dean” Sam said the way he always did when he felt Dean was brushing aside his ideas and work without really listening at all, “but you’ve got to look at this town’s history!” Sam continued unwavering in his brother’s disinterest.

“What about it?” Dean asked unenthused reaching for a hashbrown.

“I hacked into the PD’s database” Sam began calmly, as performing such illegal crimes were an everyday action, he continued, “and I looked at more pictures and reports from their past cases…I think this town has a huge supernatural problem, and the police seem to always hastily clean it away and play it off as animal attacks or freak accidents.”

Dean still didn’t seem convinced of this town’s potential for a case.

“Look at this.” Sam said somewhat exasperated by his brother’s stubbornness, turning his laptop back to his Dean with new evidence lighting up the screen.

“See this one, the man’s cut up, and clearly those marks were not made by the wood working tools the police claim they were made by.” Dean’s eyes started to show some interest, Sam continued with vigor:

“And look at this…a while back the _entire_ town came down with, what the newspaper referred to, as a virus…a virus that turned everyone into zombies…doesn’t that sound a little like Croatoan to you?”

That caught Dean.

“That’s only the beginning, Dean.”

“Fine,” he gave in with a sigh…”where is this town?” he asked.

“Oregon,” Sam answered. “Portland, Oregon.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nick could see the Wesen traces everywhere but he was yet to catch who was doing it. By the size and looks of the wounds the two victims had, Nick was leaning toward Coyotl, Balam, or Blutbad; but there was nothing that suggested that it couldn’t be any of the countless others he’d encountered…or even ones he had yet to meet.

He was amazed at the amount of Wesen there were in Portland, but he’d grown used to it, and sighed knowing he’d be spending some late nights in the trailer this week.

Hank, his partner, stopped at his side, closing his notebook he looked around, and, noting the coast was clear, leaned in and partly whispered:

“You think it was Wesen?”

“Yeah, the signs are pretty clear; I just don’t know what kind…or why.” replied Nick pulling off the blue sterile gloves he’d been wearing to investigate the scene.

“Well, that’s why we’re here” said Hank jokingly.

Wu strode over to them with his air of being partly grossed out and yet still running it as any case.

“Ran her ID, no priors. She’s a student at the campus, but lives in town, last anyone heard from her she was at a sorority party.” he said eyebrows rising at the mention of sorority girls.

“Thanks.” Hank said taking the address from Wu.

“Need anything else?” Wu asked.

“No, let’s head back, I want to get my notes on the other vic. See if we can make a connection.” Nick said heading back to the car.

 ~~~

Back at the precinct, Nick and Hank reviewed the evidence.

So far there were two victims. First one, a male, 46, that was found outside his shop in town three days ago; Name Vic Tracey, of Tracey’s Hardware. Second a female, 23, Silvia Brown a college student at Portland State University.

As far as they could tell there were no connections between the two victims, both had no priors…it seemed the only similarities were the wounds that had been inflicted on them.

Just as Hank was about to suggest a break, they’d been looking at this material for the entire day, two men walked over to them led by Wu. They were both tall, sturdily built men who seemed to mean business. They were introduced as FBI agents. Agents Colt and Remington. Nick had no idea why they were here, but it couldn’t be good. He shot a glance at the Captain’s office to try and get a read from him as to if he should be worried, but the blinds were down.

~

Sam noted the two detectives, Burkhardt and Griffin, with amusement. He had read their reports and was expecting something entirely different. He was prepared for some fat, old, dim-witted cops too lazy to carry an investigation through the crazy mud of supernatural issues, but instead he saw two young, seemingly intelligent men in front of him. Either they were just confused by what they had seen, were attempting to make heads and tails of it, or maybe they weren’t as bright as they seemed.

After introductions Dean (that is Agent Colt) asked them for the basics on these new cases – got the victim run downs – which informed him and his brother of the two victims’ names and stories. That was about as much as they could get out of the two detectives though.

“But what about the wounds?” Sam (Agent Remington) asked trying to lead them. “They seem a little large and violently done for just a common dog, as you suggest” he added.  

The one closest to them, Burkhardt, took on a sense of humor and shrugged a little saying he assumed a bear would have done more damage to the vics plus it wouldn’t have gone into town to get Tracey outside his store, so a dog was the only _logical_ answer.

Could they be more lackadaisical in their work? Sam thought. Well maybe clueless was better; they wouldn’t interfere and they wouldn’t get hurt. He looked at Dean, Sam was usually ‘good cop’ in their charades and he was getting a little too annoyed to continue peaceably.

“You seem to have a lot of these “dog” related cases here?" coaxed Dean.

“What else could it be?” the detective said once again, looking to his partner who looked just as hopeless to Sam.

“Do you-“ Sam began, trying to see if Griffin would be just as unhelpful as Burkhardt, but he was cut short as someone approached.

“Gentlemen,” started Captain Sean Renard who had come out of his office, “what brings you here? We don’t get many visits from your kind.”

“Just trying to get some insight to these new attacks,” answered Dean, “They match some others we’ve seen.”

“Well there’s not much to tell. Accidents happen, and our animal control hasn’t been as dutiful as they need to be,” he finished so seriously that Sam was both happy that someone had a brain, but upset that it was clearly trying to get rid of them.

“And you truly believe it was just dogs?” Sam pried.

“There is no other explanation. If it is foul play it wouldn’t be so clearly bite marks, and the type of animal isn’t important, just that we can stop it.” the captain quickly excused himself after that.

Sam and Dean thanked the detectives and left their card to be contacted if anything else should come up, and walked back out to the waiting Impala.

~

“Well,” started Dean.

“Well, it seems to me this town is trying to preserve their innocence or something by ignoring what’s right in front of them.” concluded Sam.

"Or maybe those two were covering something up?" added Dean, "I think the captain knew more than he was letting on. He seemed very…severe."

"Maybe, but I don't think they'll be much help anyway," said Sam opening the passenger side door.

“Well, guess that’s why we’re here” said Dean sliding into the impala and popping in a cassette tape.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Nick knocked on the Captain’s door quickly before entering.

When he did Renard looked up from the stack of papers he was fussing with at his desk.

“Hey, what was with those two agents?” Nick asked the captain as he closed the doors.

“I don’t know. They didn’t seem quite right to me,” Sean said acknowledging Nick’s more-than-usual discomfort at the necessity to cover up Wesen centered cases.

"I know... they were very eager to dismiss our dog theory, and it felt like they were trying to get us to confess something." Nick said coming over to the desk.

"I just meant that they seemed too laid back, not like the normal agents... did you see the length of that one's hair?" the captain said shuffling through his papers again.

"It was more than that...it was almost like they expected it to be..." Nick trailed off thinking.

"Just keep an eye on them, maybe they got all they needed." Sean said looking up at Nick.

Nick nodded and headed out to reread his notes again.

`````````````````````````````````````

Sam sat tapping on his computer googling and searching for any myth, legend, folklore, or gospel that may contain the answers they needed.

Having knocked out the possibilities of most of the usual suspects; vamps, werewolves, demons, even ghosts etc. they were left with a case that required more than the usual “come in guns blazing.” Unfortunately that was Dean’s favorite kind of case, and he was growing rather bored of being stuck up in this dinky motel without cable.

“Can we please just go stake out somewhere? Get some burgers?” Dean sighed rolling over on his bed where he’d been crumpling paper and tossing it across the room into the trash…or at least attempting to.

“I think it would be smarter to at least try to figure out what we’re facing before we go hunt it down.” Sam said not looking up.

“Dude, come on. There’s nothing there. We’re not gonna find it without, ya know, finding it” he said gesturing in the general area of the door.

Sam sighed and closed his computer.

“Fine” he said rubbing his tired eyes.

He really hadn’t been able to find anything. What kills but doesn’t drink the blood, or really eat any of the meat? What chases for fun? No possession, no symbols, no hex-bags, no magic, too gruesome for some, not gruesome enough for some of the other things.

He was at a loss.

```````````````````````````````````````````````                                                                                                

Nick flipped through the pages of his terribly old books. The trailer that was left to him by his aunt was always helpful, but this time he was coming up dry.

This was such a, well, regular kill…though the fact that it is Wesen may not make it quite so regular.

It was a hunt, that’s all it was. There was nothing eaten, no blood drank. Just kill for the fun of it. Nothing was taken nothing was left.

“Hunts have been outlawed by the council…but there are still those who hold to the old ways…unfortunately” Monroe said sipping some coffee and skimming through a different book.

“Is there any particular reason that they would go after a certain person?” Hank asked, always thinking motive first as a detective.

“Places are generally staked out, but not usually people.” Monroe explained. “Campuses that are always full of people makes it an easy way to not get caught.”

“That explains why the vics have no connection to each other.” Nick added closing his book.

Hank and Monroe did the same. There were just too many options on this one. The vics were torn apart but with no distinguishing way. This could be anything from Coyotl or Hundjäger to Blutbad.

“I guess we’ll just have to catch it to find out.” said Hank putting his coat on.

````````````````````````````````

A kill was happening just about every night so far, so they assumed this night wouldn’t be any different.

Dean closed the trunk of the Impala; a cheeseburger in one hand, a machete in the other.

Both killings had happened near/on the campus so that’s where they set up.

“Hey, I’m going through some older stuff on this town. Look at this,” Sam said breaking their hour’s silence. He handed his phone to Dean who started swiping.

 “It’s almost always these two detectives involved in the cases.”

“Ok, so they’re incompetent.” Dean said handing him back the phone. “Most are with this stuff.”

“But the Captain; watch any video of him dispelling these cases and he…it doesn’t seem real at all. I mean, who keeps believing these guys?” Sam said shocked at the town’s own ease with these things.

There was something not right about this town and Sam was sure it didn’t start at this case.

“Well they probably wouldn’t believe the truth either if they could figure out what it really is.” Dean said, as always more worried about the future and the fight than the past.

~

“Dean…Dean wake up!” Sam whispered urgently. Something was happening. There were some frat boys walking along the sidewalk.

They were darting in and out of the bushed. One stopped and climbed a tree in two leaps.

Dean’s eyes darted to Sam, and they silently slid out of the car.

They trailed the guys for the next couple hundred yards or so. That’s when it happened.

One of the guys stopped mid step and tilted his head to the air. He sniffed and howled or growled?  It wasn’t the normal sound of a drunk frat boy, but that of an animal.

His fellow frat boys howled along with their different weird voices.

The one who howled first stepped forward into the light of a sidewalk lamp and shrugged his shoulders up and rolled his head up the right side.

As he did so his face changed into one resembling, well, a lion.

Dean didn’t need any more invite than that.

Sam veered off to the right as Dean walked right up to the boys.

“Evening, guys” Dean said flashing his machete.

Sam stepped up behind the gang, knife and gun poised gracefully in his hands.

Some of the boys shrugged their various faces back to normal, scared ones, but the leader just started laughing in Dean’s face.

“Haha, what are you gonna do?” he laughed.

“Son, you don’t wanna know.” Dean said drawing up his weapon.

There was a tension in the air between them all, but it was quickly broken as the leader growled low and lunged at Dean.

He caught Dean’s arm and pinned his machete to him.

Dean could hear Sam struggling against the rest who had returned to their animal forms again. He threw the…thing off of him and rolled into a standing, fighting stance. He lunged first this time rapping the frat thing on the side of the shoulder. He yelped, but that had only made him angry.

He barred his teeth at Dean and came towards him at a run. But before he made it any closer he face planted with a thud. Standing in his place was Detective Burkhardt holding what appeared to be a club of some sort.

In the distance he saw the other detective, Griffin, and another guy helping Sam up.

The boys had scattered paranormally quickly and these Detectives didn’t seem to care.

~~

“What’s going on?” asked Detective Burkhardt.

Sam had made his way over to Dean and seeing he was fine looked at him, he cocked his head a bit and shrugged. The little motion held a lot of meaning. Were they going to let these guys in on the secret, that there are things, supernatural things in this world…and not just “dogs” as they may choose to believe.

Dean, who was still not entirely sure how bright or worthy these guys were, decided to go for it.

“Listen, we think we have the answer to these killings. But I doubt you’ll believe us.” Dean said in an air of pomposity.

Hank and Nick shared a look. Hank looked about to laugh and Nick looked concerned. Monroe just slid behind them.

“Ok.” said Nick smirking ever so slightly.

“Alright,” Sam began, “we’ve all heard stories when we were little: Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, that kind of stuff. The thing is…they’re real. They’re real and we hunt them.” he finished and was very disappointed at their lack of reaction.

“So I take it you’re not FBI?” said Hank in a fake-confused way. Nick was not amused.

Are these guys stupid, thought Dean.

“My name is Sam Winchester. This is my brother Dean…we’re hunters” Sam was trying to be gentle about this, he always was with “the talk”, but he wasn’t really sure what was happening.

Hank, Nick, and Monroe were still not impressed and their expressions showed it.

“UGH, come here!” Dean said angrily – not willing to be gently, he was not used to this talk going so strangely.

He led them back to baby and popped the trunk.

The weapons glittered in the moonlight. Boxes of hex-bags and supplies for spells were stuffed in corners, and a stack of books was strewn about. Sam reached for one and opened it to a random page.

“See, they all exist.” He said showing some sketches and notes from his father’s journal.

Hank looked at Nick and inclined his head. Nick knew what he meant and sighed. He looked to Monroe. Monroe shrugged he wasn’t a decision maker.

Nick let out a breath. Guess this is happening, he thought. He looked back to the brothers and smiled a bit.

“I think we can top this.” Nick said almost as pompously as Dean had spoken before.

“Get in your car and follow us” said Hank almost giddy.

````````

There had been some moments driving through the dark trail that Sam wasn’t quite sure these men weren’t the monsters they were searching for. But as they pulled up he was still intrigued.

 “A trailer?” said Dean in disbelief whipping his head towards Sam and furrowing his eyebrows as they pulled finished their drive.

The door creaked open as Nick held his arm out for them to enter.

They did.

Books all over, most older than any of theirs. Vials and trunks, drawings and samples, but best of all a closet of weapons.

Dean stood in awe for a few moments before pulling out a crossbow. The bunker had some stuff, but this was raw weapon power, not scientific stuff.

“That’s one of my particular favorites.” said a voice behind him, it was the guy from before, Monroe they were calling him. “Look here, these bolts can be filled with whatever you need and shot right at your enemy.” he was very excited.

Sam flipped through the books not looking up.

“There’s so much here. What are these things?” he asked innocently sliding into the chair at the desk.

“They’re called Wesen” Burkhardt began, “you said those “stories” you heard as kids were true, well they are. Heard of the brothers Grimm?” he asked. Sam nodded still not looking up from his book.

“I’m a Grimm. That means I can see all these creatures.” he explained.

“But we saw them too?” Dean said turning a fraction of a turn from the weapons.

“They can choose to let you see them, which those guys did. But I can see them whether or not they want me to.” Nick explained.

“So what you’re a team of Grimms?” Dean asked.

“No, I’m a Grimm, but,” Nick began.

“I’m just regular,” said Hank, “but I know.”

“Kehrseite-Schlich-Kennen that’s called.” said Monroe always ready to educate.

“You know too then?” Sam asked him.

“Ha…um, well” he began looking at Nick…

“You know, not all Wesen are monsters. I don’t know how you deal with your…cases. But I’m a detective first. I’ll ask then shoot. Everyone deserves a fair trial no matter what they are.” Nick proclaimed, not about to let these random men hurt Monroe, or think less of him.

“We’ve found most of our monsters are monsters.” Dean said sifting through more weapons testing the weight of the Morningstar in his hand.

“But our monsters are monsters, not Wesen.” Sam clarified taking the time to look up at Nick, Hank, and Monroe to show he understood. Dean nodded along.

Nick glanced back to Monroe, in the same way Monroe had done to him earlier – he wasn’t going to tell him what to do.

Monroe cleared his throat.

“In that case, I’m a Blutbad.” He pronounced the name clearly for them to learn.

 He shrugged his shoulders the same way the boys had done earlier that night and his face contorted into that of a wolf.

“HOLY SHIT!” said Dean dropping the knife he was holding.

“GEEZE” Sam yelled with equal force standing up so quickly he knocked over his chair.

“Ok, calm down” he said his muzzle lowering and intensifying his voice.

Sam, already standing, rushed up to Monroe stopping about a foot away. He examined him thoroughly as he did with every new fact, idea, story, or person he met.

Monroe woged back to normal.

“Wow, so wolf?” Sam whispered in disbelief.

“Very good, but we’re called Blutbad.”

“Blutbad” Sam repeated to himself.

“So what you’ve been fighting _Wesen_ as an undercover detective?” Dean asked finally stepping away from the closet of weapons and letting himself look away from Monroe.

“No, well, now yes I guess…but I was a detective first.” Nick said.

“What? How does that work?” Sam asked politely also allowing himself to look away from Monroe.

“I just got my…uh…ability a few years back.” he began lowering himself into an armchair nearby,  “My Aunt Marie came to me and she was sick. When she died I inherited this trailer and, well her powers too I guess. It’s a family thing. My mom is Grimm too. I was just sort of thrown into it. It’s complicated….and as it happens there's a lot of _it_ in Portland.”

“What about you? Just picked that machete up one day and started fighting?” asked Hank.

“We were raised hunters.” Sam said, “I was just a baby when our family got in the business.”

“How does that happen? You chose to do this?” Monroe asked.

“Our mother was killed by a demon.” Dean said quickly. “Dad didn’t let that go.”

Awkward silence. Monroe blushed sorry now that he’d asked.

“We just carried on from there. Someone always needs help.” Sam said saving the mood.

“I’m sorry for your loss, but at least you were prepared as you grew up…I just woke up one day seeing things and about to check myself into a mental hospital.” Nick said with a soft chuckle.

“True, but I’d have given anything for a bit of normal before it though.” Sam said chuckling too.

A bit of a truce formed now; they believed the other and felt like they were all kinda in the same boat.

“So, any idea what those jack-asses back there were?” said Dean clearing his throat and coming back around to the case and away from the feelings.

“Well that one fighting you was a Lowen, I’m pretty sure.” said Nick shuffling through some papers on a side table.

“I thought I caught a glimpse of one of those…dang, uh….what’s Bud?” Hank said looking to Monroe for confirmation.

“Eisbiber” Monroe answered. “There were like 2 or 3 others though.” Monroe said with concern, “and I don’t understand why they’d be together anyways.”

They all shared glances with each other. The next no more sure than the one before.

“Well I guess the only way we’ll find that out is by catching them.” said Dean. He looked around and every seemed to agree.

~~~~~~~~

“I think we can handle questioning some frat boys.” said Dean the next morning walking briskly to catch up to Hank and Nick’s strides out of the precinct.

“But I need to be there if they woge.” Nick said.

“Fine you and me”

They stopped. Dean wasn’t giving in, Sam gave them a ‘He-won’t-let-up, sorry’ shoulder shrug.

There had been a third death last night. Only on the other side of campus from where they had been, and about an hour after they had left. It happened late in the music hall. Poor kid at a piano.

They wanted to catch these boys that had attacked them, they had to be involved somehow, They were Wesen.

 

Sam and Hank went back to the scene of the fight. There was nothing but scuff marks in the grass and a bit of blood where the frat boy had clung to a tree after getting up and running after his buddies.

“Why didn’t you take him down? Or at least in for questioning?” Sam asked. This was not their, his brother’s and his, normal method of solving cases.

“We’re detectives first,” Hank began, “and as you know, it’s kind of hard to explain why we’re keeping them or bringing them in…or why our questions to them are about animal-creatures with made up sounding names.”

“Yeah,” said Sam realizing his silliness.

“Besides we usually solve the cases and can get them anyways, without the hassle.”

Hank had accepted his position in this weirdness so well. After a few more moments of walking in silence Sam couldn’t help himself:

“Don’t you miss it? Normal. A normal life?”

“Haha…every now and then. Like when I’m given blood-magic cookies, or about to be eaten...” he began chucking a little, but then he stopped and turned to Sam, “But Nick is my friend and I wouldn’t want him to have to do this alone. It’s a real eye opener. Life’s more dangerous, and more interesting.” Hank looked up at Sam. He had a wistful look in his eyes. “I wouldn't take it back. There’s more risk but more people to help. Plus there's a lot of cool stuff to see.”

Sam smiled, he could understand that. Hank was a pretty good guy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Can you all account for your whereabouts last night?” Dean was asking the group of assembled cargo-short-and-neon-tank-top-wearing Alpha Sigma Phi frat brothers in the small living room of the house.

“Kappa Kappa Gamma's kegger.” said one brother as he high-fived the boy next to him.

Dean had trouble containing the punches he wanted to throw; this was not as pleasant as the Kappa Kappa Gamma’s house where they got the list of people who had been at the party.

“And what time was that?” Nick continued.

As the brothers answered Dean looked over all of them. It had been dark last night. The only one he really got a good look at was the leader and he didn’t look like him for very long. None of these boys looked like they had been in a fight either, and they were much more built than the boys last night had been.

 He looked at Nick next; watching his eyes. Nick had explained how Wesen saw darkness in his eyes, and his eyes were the only ones who could see them back, even if they didn’t want him to. They just looked like eyes to Dean. Striking brown eyes.

He turned back to the brothers. Nick was looking at each of them in turn too. Nothing happened. No one woged.

“Thanks guys,” Nick was saying as he handed them his card, “call me if you remember anything.” He jerked his head towards the door and Dean followed.

“So, anything?” Dean asked as they hit the sidewalk.

“No, they weren’t Wesen, or at least they didn’t woge.” he said sounding a little frustrated.

They continued down towards where they had been last night to meet up with Hank and Sam.

~~~~~~

“So, maybe they weren’t frat boys, just regular jerks who went to a party on campus?” Sam said.

They had crashed at Monroe and Rosalee’s spice shop. Sam was geeking out and filling up a basket with purchases. It’s not every day you don’t have to ask Crowley or Cas to find your spell ingredients, and there were some here even he hadn’t heard of.

“More likely than not they weren’t students – students would have a little more care on their campus,” said Rosalee coming out of the back room with a little book. “I’ve been going through old purchases looking for anything that might be Löwen-related, if you’re sure that’s what you saw.”

“Did you find something?” Hank asked looking over her shoulder.

“Well, not really, but my brother used to keep track of who and what his customers were…There’s only one Löwen family on his list. And by the looks of it they have a son…”

~~~~

Sam and Hank made their way around to the back of the house in case they decided to run while Nick and Dean knocked on the front door.

A sweet looking woman answered.

“Can I help you?” she said.

“Hi, I’m detective Burkhardt this is my partner Detective Winchester, we were wondering if your son was home.”

“Oh no, what’s happened?” she asked very concerned.

“There was an incident at the school last night, we just have a few questions for him.” said Dean charmingly. She opened the door the rest of the way and let them in.

She called her son, Rob, downstairs. He came begrudgingly plodding down the stairs. It was him, the leader from last night.

Once he finally pulled off his headphones and looked up from his phone his face became a white sheet.

He woged.

Dean didn’t notice anything different about the kid, but Nick’s body tensing next to his own clued him in.

This was the flight or fight moment.

He flew. Jumped over the couch, crashed through the kitchen and out the back door.

~~~

Sam and Hank were positioned on opposite sides of the yard each hidden by trees and bushes.

Sam’s ears perked up as he heard some commotion in the house, he caught Hank’s eye and they both drew their weapons.

The boy burst out the door and vaulted over the fence before they could even take a step, but that didn’t stop them.

Sam leapt the fence in one swoop and Hank did the same. They were over just in time to catch the tail end of the boy disappearing into the woods in the park across the street.

They pursued, even though Sam’s legs were much longer Hank kept up well. As they barreled into the woods there were two paths. Without having to say anything they nodded quickly and each took a side.

~

Hank was running as fast as he could, the boy a ways in front of him and the trail was curving back towards its other side, he hoped Sam would be there to meet them, this kid was fast.

~

The path was ending. Sam stood panting, but gun and knife at the ready. He heard feet coming from the other trail.

The boy ran right into Sam’s arm and he close-lined himself.

“Good timing,” said Hank coming into view, panting a little harder than Sam.

The boy was writing on the ground clutching his neck and chest.

They heard feet coming down the trail and quickly grabbed the boy and hauled him to his feet.

Dean burst out of Hank’s trail and Nick out of Sam’s.

“You got ‘em!” said Dean clapping Hank on the back.

“Just barely” he replied looking at Sam.

“We’d better get out of the middle of the path.” said Nick.

~~

They walked into the woods off the path and threw they boy onto a stump.

They encircled him. Nick in front, Hank in back, Sam on the left, Dean on the right.

“You’re….” Rob started wheezily coughing his breath back into him. “You’re a Grimm!?”

“And a cop,” Nick added.

“Dude, I didn’t do anything,” the kid whined.

“You call killing three people nothing?” said Dean tapping his gun menacingly.

“I never killed anyone!”

“So last night, you just wanted to fight us for fun?” Hank said with the perfect amount of sarcasm.

“Dude, last night was just us guys being…ya know, guys or whatever!”

“How often do you Wesen act like that?” Sam said seriously.   

“Oh my god! Are you all Grimms? Holy Shit! You’re gonna kill me!” Rob practically squealed putting his head in his hands. He looked very small and helpless.

Dean sighed a little and grabbed his hair and pulled his head up.

“I ain’t a Grimm, but I will kill you if you don’t start giving us answers.” he said shoving his head away.

“Alright, alright. I told you, we didn’t do anything.”

“What do you know about the deaths that have been happening,” said Nick pulling out the pics from his pocket and showing them to Rob.

Rob looked like he might be sick.

“Dude put those away. I did NOT do that.”

“But it was Wesen, and you were right at the epicenter of the scenes of the crimes last night, with a pack of Wesen.” Sam said unconvinced that Rob didn’t know anything.

“We were on campus for a party.” He said turning his pleading eyes on each of them.

“And who is we?” Nick asked calmly.

“Just the guys,” he started but seeing the still unamused faces around decided to elaborate. “Matt, Jack, Ernie…Bill. They’re Wesen, but they’re just [Fuchsbau](http://grimm.wikia.com/wiki/Fuchsbau), [Eisbiber](http://grimm.wikia.com/wiki/Eisbiber)s, uh, and Mauzhertz for pete’s sake …. We didn’t do any of that!”

Nick looked to Hank, Dean looked to Sam; then Sam and Dean looked at Hank and Nick. They all seemed to believe this kid. He really didn’t seem, well, bright, or strong enough to plan or get away with these murders.

“So what other, uh more ferocious, Wesen are around the campus that could do this?” Dean asked assuming those names Rob had said weren’t those of very powerful Wesen.

The tension seem to ease up on the lad after the silent exchange between the men.

“There is a rumor, but it’s probably no more than that.” he began eyes scanning the men still surrounding him. “They say that one of the frats is Wesen only, and they sort of do a hazing thing with the freshmen.”

“Hazing…or hunting?” Sam asked.

“Same thing to these guys, I think.” Rob answered in a wary way.

“Do you know what house?” Hank asked pulling out his notebook.

“One of the Alpha’s, not ironically, Alpha Sigma Phi. They don’t care for us lower Wesen. They’re the ones who laughed us out of the party last night.” Rob disheartenedly sighed. 

“What do you mean?” Nick asked.

“They are Wesen, that part is known, but they consider themselves above us.”

“Us is?” Dean continued getting a little annoyed with the length of this interview.

“Weaker Wesen. Or, in my case, the ones who don’t hunt or eat meat.” Rob said.

That resonated with Nick deeply. Monroe had been mock and persecuted by his own kind for doing the same that this boy is.

“Go home…now” said Nick. Rob got up and scurried to get away.

“Hey, I think you’ll be more cautious in the future…right?” Sam yelled stopping him.

Rob gave a nod with an expression of half scared half sincere.

“Why didn’t they woge when we were there then, if they are Wesen?” Dean asked coming to Nick’s side.

“Seeing as they’re clearly the jerks in town, they probably have gotten used to intimidation without having to woge, and like Rosalee said, maybe they’re more careful when it can be traced back to their school and their frat.” Nick said, though he too was a little concerned about it. A cocky Wesen was not good.

 “I think we’d better find out how many new recruits are in Alpha Sigma Phi…we know there’s at least three.” Sam said already pulling out his phone to call the school.

One death per freshman was not good and they needed to stop it before it happened again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Five freshmen. That means there’s two left to be hazed.” Sam was saying as he stepped back in the trailer.

“So there will be two more deaths if we don’t stop them.” said Hank acknowledging Sam’s news.

“Well, gear up.” said Dean snapping the crossbow he’d been fiddling with back together.

~

Stake out: night two.

They had taken what they could use from the trailer, Impala, and the spice shop. Hank and Sam sat in the patrol car monitoring campus alerts, activity, and even twitter feeds. They knew where the party was and anywhere it might go.

Dean and Nick were cruising in the Impala. They slowly went up and down Fraternity Row.

It was the boys turn to host the party. At the north end of the campus, at Tau Delta Phi, was where the party was, Sam and Hank had informed them.

It was conveniently on the edge of the woods, same woods that the 2nd vic was killed in. They all sat and waited. Every drunk stumbling outside to barf held their attention, then grossed them out.

It’s was heading to 4am, Hank was on his 5th cup of coffee and Dean had eaten 4 candy bars he found in the glove compartment.

Finally they saw it. The hideous Neon-colored gang stumbling out of the party. They walked along and paused long enough for the smallest to puke up his guts. They all laughed.

They sat down on the curb. The biggest brother and one of the smaller ones, though for them that meant still large, stood up. The big one was saying something then clapped the younger one on the back. They stood up did a “hands-in” and as they separated the young one went back inside.

A few moments later the boys came out with a drunk girl. She was so unsteady she couldn’t really stand up.

The boys clapped for him as he walked her to the edge of the woods.

Dean pulled out of the drive way.

Nick quickly called Hank and told him and Sam to come to where they were.

This was it.

He pulled to the house across from the party and they got out.

They had to go in through the woods, not on the path. The boy and girl were only a few meters in there and the rest were still at the head of the trail.

 

“Sweetie, I’m gonna give you a head start.” he said letting her go.

“Whhaatt?” slurred the girl losing her balance a little.

The boy shrugged his shoulders that particular way and his face transformed.

“Balam” said Nick in Dean’s ear. But Dean had seen it too. His heart raced for a second then he hit that calm before a fight.

“Come on sweetie, you’d better start running” said the boy again but with a much deeper voice and growl.

Nick and Dean moved in.

The other boys had woged as well. Dean could see them. They were more aggressive and blood-thirsty than the boys from the other night. He was not sure the two of them would be enough.

Dean raised his crossbow, but Nick put his hand on it to stop him.

Nick motioned for him to move in even closer with him. They encroached further. The boy was counting down from 60. The girl was still standing there shocked.

“40..now sweetie don’t waste this time…39…38” the boy’s voice still managed to sound slimy at such a deep resonate.

Nick reached under Dean’s cross bow and lifted it a little. Then he stood up and walked straight out and up to the boy.

The boy turned around on count 28 thinking it was one of his brothers. But it was far from that.

It wasn’t long before he caught Nick’s eye.

“A Grimm!” he growled. His woge fading quickly.

He turned to his brothers who were attempting to flee but were pushed back into the woods by Sam and Hank whose guns were up.

Dean was dragging the girl back out of the woods and directed her back towards the party.

“I’m not scared of a little old Grimm” laughed the biggest. He woged again. Hundjäger.

He leapt at Sam. Sam fell not yet willing to fire his gun on these kids.

This boosted the others’ spirits and they woged again too.

 Hank was prepared and knocked the first one out cold with the handle of his gun. He wasn’t prepared for the second one, but Sam was back up on his feet and took care of it.

“Thanks,” said Hank.

“Don’t mention it.” said Sam positioning himself with Hank to improve their teamwork.

 

Nick socked the Balam back into a tree. He tried to convince him to stay down, but it didn’t go over well. He got back up and came at Nick teeth bared. Nick jumped aside and the struggle continued.

 

Dean was in the center of it all. These were some weird creatures, but they were also kids – pretty much- but that wouldn’t stop him forever. His crossbow wasn’t much use in close quarters, so he let his fists do most of the work. He was nearly pinned a few times and had a bunch of scratches but he beat his way back.

Soon he, Sam, and Hank were just finishing up the last few.

 

Nick was still going solo against the boy. He got pinned once again to a tree and the boy’s fangs were inches from his neck he heard a crack and saw the boy fall to his knees.

Dean was blowing the tip of the crossbow in an ‘old-fashioned duel’ way.

The boy lay on the ground holding his calf where Dean had shot him.

“Thanks,” said Nick a little breathless.

“I couldn’t _not_ use this baby.” Dean said smiling his childish grin and twirling the crossbow.

“What do we do now?” Sam asked.

“Now we can take them in.” said Hank.

“Assault on the girl…resisting arrest?” Sam said, testing his understanding of how these guys worked cases.

“Exactly, at least that’s what I saw.” said Hank smiling and putting a hand on Sam’s shoulder.

“Me too,” added Dean smiling at the cunning way they handled things and thinking back to his first impression of them.

Nick nodded and Hank went to pull the car around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The boys didn’t take much convincing to rat on each other. The three who had finished their hazing were out of luck from where these boys stood. And for the others…well a little time in jail never hurt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monroe invited them all over to dinner. Sam and Dean hadn’t had such a good meal in a long time. No one told Dean it was Vegetarian, well Sam would hold it over him later, but not tonight.

They all shared some good stories about their cases as Sam took photos of some pages from the books in the trailer and took some general notes from Monroe and Rosalee.

 

“After all these years we’re still meeting with new things like this.” said Sam as he closed up his laptop.

“You can’t know everything that’s out there, but you can learn to deal with it – the right way.” Rosalee said in her reassuring way squeezing his shoulder.  

“Dessert anyone?” Monroe chimed in as he brought in a delicious looking pie.

No one needed to ask Dean twice. He grinned and practically ran to the table.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning they were off.

“Well, see you around,” Dean said grasping Nick’s hand and pulling him into a manly half embrace.

“If you need us, just call,” added Hank being released from a similar goodbye with Sam.

“Same goes for you,” replied Sam.

“Stay safe out there guys. I’m not sure how your “monsters” work, but Wesen aren’t the kind to forgive and forget. And if they had any connections…just be safe.” said Nick stopping himself before he got too off track.

The brothers slid into the Impala and drove off waving as they went.

 “I’m gonna miss those guys. It was nice having a few more helping hands.” said Hank lowering his hand as the Impala turned the corner. Hank really had enjoyed having others around who were newly thrown into this Wesen stuff. He’d help Nick till the end, but Nick would always be closer to this stuff than he ever would, and sometimes he feels like he’s not doing enough to understand, but Sam’s excitement to learn about this, knowing he wasn’t ever going to be perfect was a good reminder as to why Hank did it, and that he didn’t need to be perfect to help.

“Seems like they travel a lot, I’m sure they’ll be back.” said Nick. This whole experience had shown him a lot too. Maybe his life wasn’t quite that odd. If the Winchesters had to do it, and had been doing it for, well, ever. He could do it too. There would always be cases, and they’d probably always be downers, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the time he’d had before and the time in between.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wesen…” Dean said, “That’s one for the archive for sure.”

“I’m already on it,” said Sam who had begun compiling the information they’d learned into a manageable file on his laptop

“Grimms…” Dean continued, “who’d of thought?”

Sam nodded.

“I know we’ve got Men of Letters, who by the way had nothing about this, going for us, but I think we need a better name than Hunters.”

“What?” said Sam.

“I mean, ‘Grimm’ is such a cool, like, title.” Dean explained.

“Are you serious?” Sam said not even trying to contain his smile.

“What about like, ‘Slayers’,” he said majestically as he could, passing his hand in front of him, “or something like,”

“Dean, no.” Sam said trying to be serious.

“Sammy, come on. What about like-“

“No.”

“Sammy, just listen…”

Though the case was a little trying, they learned a lot, and had made some memorable connections.

Hank took everything without strife, and that reminded Sam of the old him, the him he wanted to get back to. No one ever asks for this to happen to them. Grimms and Wesen alike. His outlook needed a tune up, and Hank showed him that. Maybe he could get back to being a helper first, hunter second. That’s what this has always been about saving people first, hunting things second.

And even if Dean wanted a cooler title, he was impressed with Nick’s acceptance of this type of thing and his ability to see past the monster. Dean felt he had lost that part of him long ago. He wanted to get back to that, at least a little. His life had gotten monotonous lately. Find a case, kill it, move on. But this was new, and exciting, and fun. Maybe everything wasn’t as dark and drear, black and white as he thought. Maybe Men of Letters could be enough for him; Learning and understanding. Monroe did make great pie, for a Blutbad.


End file.
